"Staff Sergeant David Senft was a courageous
soldier who gave the ultimate sacrifice while serving our country. Maria
and I were deeply saddened to learn of his death and will be forever grateful
for his selfless service. On behalf of all Californians, we extend our
sympathies to David’s family and loved ones during this difficult time,"
Schwarzenegger said in a statement.

Flags at the state Capitol will be flown at
half-staff in honor of Senft.
22 November 2010:

A Grass Valley, California, soldier found dead
one week ago in Afghanistan is set to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery,
but the death of 27-year-old Army Staff Sergeant David Senft in Afghanistan
one week ago remains shrouded in mystery.

Senft’s body was found inside the security
fences of Kandahar Airfield. Senft’s father worked at the the massive air
base as an electrician, and said his son’s body was found with a single
gunshot wound in the deserted location.

The elder Senft said he doesn’t believe his
son committed suicide. He said his son was recently married and had advanced
toward his goal of flying a Black Hawk helicopter.

The father hoped to get some answers from the
results of Friday’s autopsy, due soon.

The young man is survived by a wife, his parents,
a five-year-old son, older sister and younger brother.

Soldier&apos;s death angers fatherBy James RisenCourtesy of The New York Times1 January 2011

A gentle snow fell on the funeral of Staff
Sgt. David Senft at Arlington National Cemetery on December 16, 2010, when
his bitterly divided California family came together to say goodbye. His
5-year-old son received a flag from a grateful nation.

But that brief moment of peace could not hide
the fact that for his family and friends and the soldiers who had served
with him in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, too many unanswered questions
remained about Senft's lonely death in a parked sport utility vehicle on
a U.S. air base in Afghanistan, and about whether the Army could have done
more to prevent it.

Officially, the Army says that Senft, 27, a
crew chief on a Black Hawk helicopter in the 101st Airborne Division's
aviation brigade, was killed as a result of "injuries sustained in a noncombat-related
incident" at Kandahar Air Base on November 15, 2010. No specific cause
of death has been announced. Army officials say three separate inquiries
into the death are under way.

But his father, also named David Senft, an
electrician from Grass Valley who had worked in Afghanistan for a military
contractor, is convinced that his son committed suicide, as are many of
his friends and family members and the soldiers who served with him.

The evidence appears overwhelming. An investigator
for the Army's Criminal Investigative Division, which has been looking
into the death, has told Senft's father by e-mail that his son was found
dead with a single bullet hole in his head, a stolen M-4 automatic weapon
in his hands and his body slumped over in the SUV, which was parked outside
the air base's ammunition supply point. By his side was his cell phone,
displaying a text message with no time or date stamp, saying only, "I don't
know what to say, I'm sorry."

With Senft, the warning signs were blaring.

The Army declared him fit for duty and ordered
him to Afghanistan after he had twice attempted suicide at Fort Campbell,
Kentucky, and after he had been sent to a mental institution near the base,
the home of the 101st. After his arrival at Kandahar early in 2010, he
was so troubled that the Army took away his weapon and forced him into
counseling on the air base, according to the e-mails from the Army investigator.
But he was assigned a roommate who was fully armed. CID investigators have
identified the M-4 with which Senft was killed as belonging to his roommate.

"I question why, if he was suicidal, and they
had to take away his gun, why was he allowed to stay in Afghanistan?" asked
Senft's father. "Why did they allow him to deploy in the first place, and
why did they leave him there?"

Defense Department officials have frequently
spoken about how suicide prevention has become a top priority, and in interviews,
officials noted that the National Institute of Mental Health was now leading
a major study of Army suicides.

Ever since the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq
began, suicides among American troops have been soaring, as military personnel
become mentally exhausted and traumatized from repeated deployments to
combat zones. In 2004, the Army reported that 67 soldiers on active duty
committed suicide; by 2009 that number had jumped to 162. The Army reported
144 suicides in 2010 through November, and officials say it is now beginning
to see a sharp rise in suicides among nonactive duty National Guard and
Reserve personnel who are not currently deployed.

It is unclear how much the Army knew of Senft's
deterioration. But Colonel Chris Philbrick, deputy director of the Army's
health promotion and risk reduction task force, which handles suicide prevention
programs, said that a medical determination of cause of death, a law enforcement
review of the matter by Army investigators, and an internal review of both
Senft's personnel history and the handling of his case by his chain of
command were all ongoing.

Senft joined the Army in early 2002, just months
after the September 11 attacks.

After basic training, he was assigned to the
82nd Airborne Division based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and in 2003
he was sent to Iraq as a member of a Black Hawk helicopter crew.

His experiences during that first combat deployment
had a major impact on him, according to close friends. In one episode that
he often recounted to both his family and friends, he told of witnessing
the crash of an evacuation helicopter filled with medical personnel and
wounded soldiers that had been shot down by insurgents. He and his Black
Hawk crew were ordered to the crash site, and the gruesome scene haunted
him.

"He changed after he went to Iraq the first
time," recalled Ana Ochoa, one of his closest friends.

In 2007, he was deployed again with the 82nd
Airborne Division, this time to Afghanistan. After his return, he transferred
to the 101st Airborne Division and re-enlisted in the Army.

"I told him not to re-enlist; I told him to
get out, his personality was changing. I told him, 'You are making me uncomfortable,'"
recalled Ochoa. "After each deployment, he seemed to get needier, sadder,
and he would be talking deeper."

While at Fort Campbell in 2008, he attempted
suicide by swallowing a bottle of sleeping pills. The pills only knocked
him out for two or three days, and when he awoke in his off-base apartment,
he called friends, who urged him to get help.

An
Army carry team carries the transfer case containing the remains of Army
Staff Sergeant David
P. Senft upon arrival at Dover AirForce Base, Del. on Tuesday, November
16, 2010

SENFT, DAVID P SSGT US ARMYAFGHANISTAN, IRAQDATE OF BIRTH: 07/04/1983DATE OF DEATH: 11/15/2010BURIED AT: SECTION 60 SITE 9662ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY